


Love and Cereal

by maya_idk



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: David Rose Loves Patrick Brewer, Episode: s04e12 Singles Week, M/M, POV David Rose, Post-Episode: s04e12 Singles Week, i am but a girl, ignore inconsistencies in use of quotation marks and italics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-13
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-21 16:15:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30024420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maya_idk/pseuds/maya_idk
Summary: david has thoughts about love, they both like to mess with each other a little as usual, idk it's short just read it
Relationships: Patrick Brewer/David Rose
Comments: 34
Kudos: 122





	Love and Cereal

**Author's Note:**

> i've started writing so many things for this fandom, *started* being the operative word bc i couldn't finish any of them off well, but i'm making myself post this so. here.

It’s been about twelve minutes. David could just sit it out another three and then the smell of coffee would waft into the room before Patrick came back to kiss him and drag him out to start the day. He should do that. It would be so nice. And, frankly, David’s pretty sure the clock still starts with a number he does not appreciate, so he should enjoy every extra second in bed he can.

But he finds himself stretching and groaning and padding out of Patrick’s room, toward the stairs. Spurred by one of those subconscious notions. And he’s on the fourth step when that blob of feeling presses up against the glass of his conscious mind, so he can see what it is as words. _I’d rather spend that time with Patrick than without him_.

Well. That’s. It shouldn’t _be_ anything, of course he likes spending time with Patrick. They’re in a relationship. They’d just said _that thing_ , the words David had spent years preparing to never hear or say, the words he barely _could_ say because they felt so foreign and out of use in his mouth. _That_ was a big deal. What’s it matter if he wants to go eat breakfast with his boyfriend a few minutes sooner?

David brushes off the thought as he makes his way to the kitchen. It looks like it’s only him and Patrick, which is weird. Wasn’t Ray here last night? David definitely thought Ray was there. That’s why they tried to be quiet, isn’t it? Why Patrick breathed “I love you” into his skin when he was clearly dying to shout it? Oh, well. Maybe he wasn’t here. They were distracted.

“Good morning,” David says, and Patrick looks surprised to see him here. He must have also been expecting to greet David back in the bed.

“Good morning.” Patrick’s making that same fond face, and David hates that he always thinks of it as his ‘fond face,’ but he hasn’t found any adequate synonyms for it yet, so it’s-

Oh.

 _Loving_. It’s his loving face. Fuck.

David runs through his mental rolodex of every time Patrick’s looked at him like that - and, god, there have been a lot - and tries to retro-fit the word ‘loving’ to all of them. Fuck.

It’s not like David had no idea Patrick loved him before yesterday, but the first time Patrick made that face must have been ages ago. Even _Patrick_ probably didn’t know what it meant back then.

Patrick brings coffee over as David’s sitting down, and David curls his lips into his mouth, the reflexive smile-suppressant, and he wonders if that’s _his_ fond face. How long has Patrick been clocking _his_ looks, figuring out that David loved him before David even knew?

Whatever. It doesn’t matter. They both love each other and know they love each other and _said_ they love each other now. It’s such a huge thing, but David’s been turning it over and over in his head since yesterday, smoothing it down until it becomes more manageable.

“Cereal okay?” Patrick asks.

David shakes his head before he remembers that typically means "no," not "sorry, I got distracted thinking about how much we love each other," so he starts nodding instead and says “yeah, please” for good measure.

Patrick brings over the cereal, milk, and a bowl, so David can pour himself because "cereal to milk ratios are a very personal thing, Patrick" and David loves him more. Patrick’s only said "I love you" twice - well, that’s not true. David’s pretty sure Patrick whispered it when he first got up today and David was still half-asleep - because he doesn’t want to overwhelm David, and David loves him more.

And that’s it, isn’t it? If David can survive the idea of loving and being loved, that giant thing, surely saying it is just supplementary, right?

Patrick is returning to the table once more with his tea, and David almost laughs because he can’t help but think _“What if I said it right now?”_ and picture Patrick dropping the mug he's holding in surprise.

But Singles Week is precious, given that they made more money yesterday than the entire week prior, and he doesn’t want to risk making them late to the store with a ceramic/tea clean-up, so he very magnanimously says nothing, leaving that potential teasing goldmine in his imagination.

Until Patrick is shoveling cereal into his mouth at an unnecessary and alarming rate, and the thought _“I love him”_ passes through so _easily_ , and David can’t resist seeing if he can fluster Patrick just a bit while still avoiding any broken dishes.

David steels himself - yes, he still has to steel himself, give him a break - and clears his throat. He gives enough time for Patrick to meet his piercing gaze, but not to stop eating. “I love you,” he says, plainly.

Patrick’s spoon clatters into his bowl, and he’s staring at David like a deer in headlights, and David doesn’t even remember to worry that it’s something bad; he’s too busy being smug that he was right and congratulating himself for saving one of Ray’s dishes.

He returns to his own cereal as if nothing had happened, but he’s smiling into the bowl.

After a good fifteen seconds, Patrick returns to reality. “Wh- what made you say that, just now?” he asks, breathless.

“Seeing you do that,” David answers, laughing as he gestures to the still-abandoned spoon and drops of milk on the table. “And because I do.”

Patrick looks at David, _lovingly_ , and says “I love you so much, David.”

“Uh!” David squawks.

“What?”

“I just said ‘I love you’ _first_ for the first time, like the sixth time _ever_ overall, and you have to go and one-up me by adding ‘so much!’”

“Sorry, David,” Patrick laughs. “I take it back. I just love you, end of sentence.”

“Thank you,” David sniffs. “Get your own moment next time.”

*

Patrick does not wait very long. Not even a full day passes, and they’re tucked in at Ray’s again, and David’s reading when Patrick says it.

“I love you so much, David.”

And what David _wants_ to do is make an example out of him and say “now wouldn’t you be pissed off if you said that for the first time and then I just proposed to you?” but that might just open the door for Patrick to say something absolutely insane and David’s still working through “so much.” So he doesn’t.

Instead, he finds his bookmark and then puts the book away on the bedside table so he can give Patrick his full attention.

“I love you so much too.”

And sometimes he still has to steel himself, but the need ebbs away every time, until one day David notes the absence of it and realizes he can’t remember the last time it was there.


End file.
